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Podcast weblog: A career in law enforcement is one of the most rewarding, challenging, and selfless professions out there. The Guns and Yoga podcast explores the intersection between the impact a first responder career can have on those on the job, their families, and the importance of adopting and maintaining a holistic lifestyle. Wendy Hummell is a seasoned law enforcement officer in the Midwest with close to 25 years experience. She is a LEO spouse, mother, and wellness enthusiast. She knows first-hand the difficulties this line of work can bring. For the past decade, Wendy has been exploring various ways to improve her emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical well – being. She continues to learn and has a passion for sharing these tools to improve the quality of life not only for herself and her family, but for all first responders. Wendy is a certified yoga and meditation instructor. She teaches yoga, mindfulness, and resiliency to first responders at her current agency where she works as the Health and Wellness Coordinator. She also teaches throughout the state of Kansas and other national platforms. Wendy retired from the Wichita Police Department in 2019 at the rank of Detective where she spent a majority of her career working persons crimes. The intention of this podcast is to add value, provide support, and share resources by providing a platform for honest conversations with first responders, family members, retirees, and wellness experts. Whether you are a law enforcement officer, work in corrections, dispatch, Fire, EMS, The Prosecutors Office, the Coroners Officer, are a member of the military, family member or anyone who supports front line workers, please subscribe today and hear hear the stories of these brave men and women, the challenges and difficulties they have faced; the wonderful programs, people, and resources available to support first responders.
Episodes
Thursday Oct 06, 2022
Thursday Oct 06, 2022
Welcome to Episode #35 of the Guns and Yoga Podcast my name is Wendy Hummell. In today’s episode you will hear my conversation with Amanda Dozanti, a former Deputy Sheriff turned first responder wellness coach and specialist. Amanda actively works towards giving first responders a way to manage chronic stress and mitigate the effects of working in a trauma-rich environment.
Amanda shares her personal story of burnout and PTS which ultimately lead her to leave the job the same year she was named Officer of the Year. She is a certified yoga instructor and wellness coach helping individuals and agencies beat burnout. So much of what Amanda discussed really hit home for me. Until recently, I hadn’t really talked much about the end of my career because it was too hard. Over these past few years I have done some deep work, and I have found the more I discuss it, the more I accept it, and the more I speak with others willing to be brave and share their stories, the easier it has become to share mine.
In fact, when Amanda was describing her exit from law enforcement and she said “It was either me or the job and I chose me” I felt a flash of déjà vu. I was also named Officer of the Year in 2018, the same year I decided to end my career.
This realization reinforced the importance of sharing our stories. Amanda and I have very different stories, we live in different states, come from 2 different generations…but the common thread of our emotions, experiences, and feelings are the same.
Lately, a lot of my personal work has to do more with the end of my career and how the grief of retirement impacted me; I became interested in first responder wellness years prior to my retirement, but the organizational betrayal, moral injury, and lack of agency I had over my situation, is what led to what I call my demise, but what has subsequently inspired my path to wellbeing and wanting to support others in the retirement stage; whether that be years prior, during or after pulling the plug.
I am in the process of creating program for the soon to be or retired responder. I have seen firsthand the power of healing in a group setting in my year long Radical Resilience coaching program, and I am excited to announce my next offering soon. I will put a link in the show notes for our Missouri First Responder listeners. I am working with the team at Pause First to put on FREE overnight retirement seminar in Branson Missouri this December. It will open up at the end of October to other states for those interested . What is unique about this event is that it is also open to significant others.
One of the intentions of this show is to share resources and programs for support, and first responder wellness coaching has been surfacing in recent years, but what do we really know about it. Just like everything else I do, prior to becoming a first responder coach myself, I became curious. What does a coach do? What’s the difference between a coach and a therapist? Do first responders really hire coaches?
Amanda and I cover this topic at length, and what you will learn is that each coach, just like choosing a therapist or a personal trainer has their own unique set of backgrounds, qualifications, and life experiences, and its on you to make sure who you hire is a good fit for you. This is why I like to speak with, promote, and collaborate with other first responder coaches like Amanda who are doing amazing work and are truly in to help first responders.
Amanda integrates her knowledge of neuroscience, yoga, trauma, and more into her framework. She offers affirmations, daily micro-challenges, a workbook, and meditation as resources to her clients. Amanda does frequent videos on TIK TOK that I find both impressive and entertaining. She balances important content with humor and knows how to attract her tribe.
Amanda is an agency trainer, coach, yoga instructor, mom, and wife. She is dedicated to supporting first responders through her one on one coaching program, her app, agency trainings, and soon she will be launching a new app.
I hope you enjoy the show and check out the show notes for ways to find Amanda and the resources mentioned in this podcast.
LINKS:
https://lifesaverwellness.com/about/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-dyer-dozanti-ma/
https://www.tiktok.com/@akdozanti
Books mentioned on this podcast:
Yamas and the Niyamas: https://www.amazon.com/Yamas-Niyamas-Exploring-Ethical-Practice/dp/0974470643
Atomic Habits: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299
FREE RETIREMENT SEMINAR: First Responder Retirement Workshop
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
Today’s show will be of special interest for those agency decision makers and leaders, politicians, or anyone interested in research to support wellness programming. Dr. Colby Mills is a Clinical and Police Psychologist who works at Forge VFR in Virginia. He has extensive experience working with veterans and first responders. Colby reached out and told me how he and his colleagues created a national survey in conjunction with the US Marshalls in which approximately nearly 9,000 respondents from all first responder agencies, local state and federal, participated. This survey asks questions about suicidal ideations, PTSD, and depression. They also looked at common stressors and identified those that had the most impact. I don’t want to give too much away, but the preliminary results are consistent with other research studies I am familiar with in that the more damaging stressors were found to be from within the organization, morale, being overworked, and lack of closure on critical incidents.
The way I see it, these survey results serve as an incredible opportunity for commanders, politicians, and decision makers to understand, educate, and inform themselves on how first responders are impacted by the organizational culture. Of course, we can’t always help overtime and investigations, BUT adopting a conscious leadership approach when it comes to understanding and addressing the stressors known to impact the troops the most will prove to not only support those struggling, but potentially prevent or diminish the blow, and who knows maybe improve retention and morale along the way.
Conscious leaders are open, curious, and committed to learning, not attached to the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mentality.
This survey provides those conscious leaders to be “armed with the facts” to inform future programming and implement resources at their agency that are trusted, effective, and accessible.
Colby discusses some of the findings which confirm many still suffer in silence; 20% reported clinical levels of anxiety, but 74% of those people have never been formally diagnosed by a professional; the results show similar numbers for depression and PTSD.
3% of officers surveyed reported having active thoughts of suicide.
The reasons cited for not seeking help are confidentiality concerns, stigma, and lack of access to resources.
We cover a lot of ground in this conversation - sleep, mindfulness, meditation, and moral injury to name a few. Moral injury has been coming up a lot lately in this show; in my most recent podcast with Michael Sugure, author of relentless courage, he recounts his story of how organizational betrayal led to his moral injury; a psychological injury that surfaces as a result of conflict between what your moral code says you should be doing and your actions, and in Michael’s case this injury was inflicted by his own agency. This is consistent with the survey results.
After listening to this episode, I encourage you to check out the survey which will be released this fall and, share it with agency decision makers, politicians, or commanders. This is the type of research we need to move forward to get the resources in place needed to support those on the front lines and to make lasting change on the first responder wellness front.
LINKS:
The National Wellness Survey - YouTube
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
Tuesday Aug 02, 2022
Tuesday Aug 02, 2022
Michael Sugrue is an Air Force Veteran and medically retired Sergeant from the Walnut Creek PD in California. He recently released a book, Relentless Courage – Winning the Battle Against Frontline Trauma, with whom he co-authored with Dr. Shauna Springer. At the time of our conversation, His book has been on the #1 bestseller list since its release five weeks in a row. Michael discusses how he had no desire to write a book, but a phone call from his co-author, led to the release of a story that absolutely needed to be told.
I have read countless books on the topic of front line trauma, but this one is unique. Without giving too much away, the book alternates between Michael’s voice and Doc Springer’s analysis as she unpacks what was going on in Michael’s mind. Her explanations are easy to understand and help to normalize Michael’s behaviors, emotions, and actions. The big take away… first responders need safe places where they can address their trauma so healing can happen.
Michael is an advocate for awareness, prevention, education, and training on PTSI and First Responder Suicide Prevention. He is a peer volunteer at the WCPR and an Ambassador for the Save a Warrior program and discusses both of these programs in our conversation.
Michael talks about a fatal shooting he was involved in shortly after promoting to Sergeant. He discussed the duality of the instant change in his personality and the more gradual onset of symptoms. Michael discusses feeling detached and emotionally number immediately following the shooting, and how he slowly became less sympathetic and empathic towards others.
Michael discusses how he suffered in silence for four years…divorce, health issues, a federal lawsuit, grieving his father’s death, and his friends suicide attempt, which he credits to saving his life and what propelled his path to healing.
Some of the highlights of our discussion include:
- Michaels healing path. West Coast Post Trauma Retreat (WCPR), Save a Warrior, therapy, prescription medication, support group meetings, and a medical procedure called Stellate Ganglion Block or SGB.
- Agency betrayal and Moral Injury. This is a big piece of his book and Michael says that often times this is what puts people over the edge, and in his case, he attributes moral injury and the treatment by his agency to his change in personality. In the book Michael recounts the countless ways in which his fatal shooting, while his defining incident, was compounded by media accounts, court proceedings, lack of a structure in which OIS were handled internally, and isolation.
- Stigma. Michael suggests the only way to overcome stigma is continuing to talk about it and we need to have the courage and strength to have these vulnerable conversations.
- Try new things. Michael says, be willing to try new things. EMDR didn’t work for him, but he knows its worked wonders for others.
- Retirement. Michael says it is possible to retire health from a full first responder career and discussing the human side of what we go through our career is a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Michael reminds us that healing is a life long journey; this is a reality, and not intended to discourage. We all fall back; we can all get triggered, but when we do, there is support.
LINKS:
Save a Warrior Program: https://saveawarrior.org/
West Coast Post Trauma Retreat: https://www.frsn.org/west-coast-post-trauma-retreat.html
60 Minutes Rewind SGB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2fBe6U7lg
Relentless Courage Book Link:
https://www.amazon.com/RELENTLESS-COURAGE-Winning-Against-Frontline/dp/1736824414
....and thanks to everyone for your continued support as we recently surpassed 10,000 downloads!!! Obviously, we couldn't have done it without all of you!!
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Christopher Davis is a retired Assistant Chief from the Fayetteville NC PD and served as an Officer in the Army. He served in Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. He is an adjunct professor and a trained yoga instructor who through his business, YOGA911, teaches the tools of yoga and mindfulness to first responders
I had the opportunity to meet Chris earlier this year at the National FOP Wellness Conference and we instantly clicked. He is the prime example of why the the tools of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness are a perfect fit for the manliest of cops. Chris openly discusses how yoga played a part during one of the lowest parts of his life where he contemplated suicide.
We discuss how the an invite to a yoga challenge by a co-worker sparked his love for the practice. There is no “right way” to healing and wellness. Chris shares how he navigated this difficult time through yoga, EMDR, peer support, rx, and intentional positive stressors.
Chris tells us about his first experience with EMDR therapy and how the incident that was most bothersome to him had nothing to do with a recent shooting he had been involved with, but organizational stress. This is a topic I covered previously in an episode with Dr. Stephanie Conn.
The last few minutes of our episode had some technical difficulties, so it is unable to be aired. CHirs and I wrap up our conversation with him sharing all the ways you can reach him which are included in the show notes.
You can find Chris at:
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Welcome to the Guns and Yoga Podcast, my name is Wendy Hummell. It has been a little while since I released an episode, so to make up for lost time, today I am releasing two. Full disclosure, my schedule these past few months has been eventful, and as much as I love the podcast, it had to take a back burner temporarily. This podcast is a passion of mine. It is important to me to provide value through conversations with interesting people in the field of first responder wellness, and I take pride in the quality of what I share. I have a process when I put out a show. I always listen back to the interview then create an intro that blends highlights from the episode with what is on my heart, sometimes integrating resources from yoga or stoic philosophy, behavioral science, or what I feel could be most useful. As I navigate balancing my perfectionist tendencies with “good enough” I still strive to figure it all out.
Today’s episodes are with fellow yogis; one a mental health professional and the other a retired cop, but both are committed to bringing the tools of yoga and mindfulness to first responders.
Sheila Schmid has been teaching and practicing yoga for 30 years in corporate settings, private lessons, and in a studio setting. Not only is Shelia an experienced yoga teacher, she has over 15 years of professional counseling experience working in mental health centers, jails, schools, and private practice.
Sheila works with first responder agencies to implement the tools of yoga and mindfulness and owns 2 busniesses, Tactical Yoga Training and Inside Job Yoga.
During our conversation, Sheila brings up how some she knows from the yoga community who are not first responders question her affiliation with first responders and disapprove of the fact she learned to shoot a gun. Sheila is further bridging the gap as she educates this community about the work she does and the application of yoga into learning to shoot. This is more important than ever as we are living in a time where our nation is divided on so many issues. We need more people willing to educate and inform in hopes of less dissension and more harmony.
I really enjoyed talking to Sheila because although the tools of mindfulness, yoga, and meditation are becoming more mainstream and are seen more in the first responder arena, as I was recently reminded by a colleague, we are still the unicorns. There are more of us now and the abundance of research, science, and evidence to support these ancient practices definitely helps.
LINKS:
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Welcome to the Guns and Yoga Podcast My name is Wendy Hummell. Today you will hear a conversation I had with Jack Harris, retired LEO, licensed counselor, trained mediator, and professional trainer. Jack retired from the Tuscon Police Dept. in 1994 at the rank of Captain. I first met Jack at the COPS conference in Oklahoma City last fall. I attended one of his sessions on retirement, but was unable to sit in on his class on Anger. Several of my co-workers attended and said it was a great class, so I reached out to Jack and invited him on the show. Jack is a subject matter expert and teaches a class Helping Keep Good People Good.
LINKS:
You can learn more at https://jackharris.org/
And, as always, if you find value in this episode, make sure to share it, give us a review, and if you’d like to be notified of future episodes you can subscribe on our Podbean website or email us at wendy@bluelineyoga.com.
Also, be sure to check out WendyHummell.com to learn more about me, my Radical Resilience Program and my free webinars & yoga videos.
Thanks!
....and thanks to everyone for your continued support as we recently passed the 50 episode mark (regular episodes & microcasts)!!!
Tuesday May 10, 2022
Tuesday May 10, 2022
Tactical Tip Tuesday is a weekly microcast where we will share a tip, tool, or dose of inspiration for the week ahead.
This week: Box Breathing, Airplanes & Tornados
Saturday Apr 16, 2022
Saturday Apr 16, 2022
Welcome to Episode #29 of the Guns and Yoga Podcast. Today I am speaking with Sherri Martin, National FOP Wellness Coordinator.
I was fortunate enough to meet Sherri in 2020 after our agency was matched with her, and two other Subject Matter Experts, from the Nashville Police Dept. as we launched our peer support and wellness program after applying to the CRITAC program through the COPS office. CRITAC stands for: Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center. Sherri’s background as a law enforcement veteran and clinician were extremely valuable as we moved forward with our program. She shared insight, guidance, and some of the initiative the FOP and COPS offices were working on such as the Vetting Guide, which helped tremendously. We will talk more about this during the show.
The day I spoke with Sherri, March 8 of this year, was coincidentally International Women's Days; a day that celebrates women’s achievements and a reminder that progress still needs to be made. Sherri and I cover a lot of territory, we start with her LE career in Charleson SC and Enfield Ct and how she ultimately landed in her current position as Director of Wellness Services with the FOP.
Besides our shared passion for law enforcement wellness, Sherri and I have a few other things in common; we talk about falling in love, relocating cross county, starting over in our careers, and what its like to work in a male dominated profession. The percentage of women in LE isn’t much different then it was 25 years ago, only 12-14% of LEO's are women. This is why it’s so important for women to support other women.
We discuss the National FOP’s third wellness conference that was held this past January in Nashville that I was fortunate enough to attend along with several others from my agency. We cover highlights from Nashville, and what’s on the horizon for the FOP. Sherri is a trailblazer in her field and I am so grateful to have met her. I had a lot of fun talking to her, it was like chatting with an old friend.
LINKS: FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE - Officer Wellness
And, as always, if you find value in this episode, make sure to share it, give us a review, and if you’d like to be notified of future episodes you can subscribe on our Podbean website or email us at wendy@bluelineyoga.com.
Also, be sure to check out WendyHummell.com to learn more about me, my Radical Resilience Program and my free webinars & yoga videos.
Thanks!
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
Tactical Tip Tuesday is a weekly microcast where we will share a tip, tool, or dose of inspiration for the week ahead.
This week: My Mentor
Wednesday Mar 02, 2022
Wednesday Mar 02, 2022
Welcome to Episode #28 of the Guns and Yoga Podcast. Today I am speaking with retired States Attorney Trish Froehlich.
I met Trish and her husband this summer at a yoga training in Wichita. We instantly connected and I knew I wanted to have her on the show. First Responder wellness must include our colleagues in the Prosecutors Office; and not just the prosecutors but court clerks, evidence clerks, and those who work with the victims and witnesses. Trish talks about her career as a prosecutor, her exposure to secondary trauma, and what retirement has been like.
Trish has been practicing yoga since 2008 and discusses how it helped her regulate her nervous system throughout her career. She became a certified yoga teacher after she retired and shares with us how her husband, a retired cop, decided to join her during her teacher training.
Not only are they living their best life in retirement, practicing and teaching yoga, but they get to share it with each other.
We discuss how nervous system activation impacts health, weight, and mental well-being. She originally started practicing yoga as a means to control her asthma symptoms, and is now committed to teaching others of its life changing benefits.
If you are interested in trying yoga, regardless of whether you are brand new or have been practicing for years, I invite you to my new YouTube channel where you can access and try my yoga videos for free. I also post these videos on my main website - WendyHummell.com.
Additionally, I am currently enrolling for my April 2022 cohort of Radical Resilience. Radical Resilience is a transformative lifestyle coaching program based on holistic habits, circadian science, and dynamic group support. If you are looking to make a change in your life, shoot me an email to schedule a free strategy session where we can discuss whether this program might be a good fit for you.
And, as always, if you find value in this episode, make sure to share it, give us a review, and if you’d like to be notified of future episodes you can subscribe on our Podbean website or email us at wendy@bluelineyoga.com.
Thanks!
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tactical Tip Tuesday is a weekly microcast where we will share a tip, tool, or dose of inspiration for the week ahead.
This week: Self Sabotage
Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
In today’s episode I speak with Matt Domyancic. Matt volunteers as a chaplain and peer support for police agencies in Los Angeles. He also is a volunteer for nonprofits that support police officers in crisis, as well as those that are injured and disabled. Matt believes all first responders can have careers that provide deeper meaning and add richness to their spiritual lives if approached in the right manner.
Matt is a medically retired police officer that worked patrol, Peer Support, SWAT, and as a full-time police academy instructor. Matt was the Wellness Coordinator for his agency integrating sports nutrition, strength, and conditioning, stress management, combatives-and-scenario training regarding officers as tactical athletes. He also was concurrently a collegiate strength coach at Yale and Georgetown Universities while a full-time police officer. Later he was a strength coach and mental skills trainer for NFL combine athletes. At Yale, he volunteered for Athletes in Action and at Georgetown, he created an ecumenical ministry Hoyas for Christ. Matt also has been a volunteer with Hockey Ministries International summer camps.
Matt’s niche is spending time in the trenches with first responders and veterans establishing trust and rapport. He does weekly ride alongs and station visits, observes and participates in any training that he is invited to, and goes shooting with veterans transitioning out of the military. His approach is not the traditional reacting to crisis or responding to requests, rather he pro-activity spends time with those he cares about while they are on the job. Matt’s priority is encouraging better overall wellness, life balance, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual self-care BEFORE officers or firefighters experience a breakdown or a crisis. However, Matt is also well versed in response to critical incidents as well as spending time with first responders at treatment facilities for PTSD and substance abuse issues.
LINK:
And please, if you find value in this episode, make sure to share it, give us a review, and if you’d like to be notified of future episodes you can subscribe on our Podbean website or email us at wendy@bluelineyoga.com.
Thanks!
Also, for more about the Radical Resilience program please visit us at: wendyhummell.com
Tuesday Jan 18, 2022
Tuesday Jan 18, 2022
Tactical Tip Tuesday is a weekly microcast where we will share a tip, tool, or dose of inspiration for the week ahead.
This week: Be Curious, Not Judgmental
On this week's podcast, Wendy talks about a Walt Whitman quote from an episode of the TV show Ted Lasso - "Be curious, not judgmental". We could all probably use a little more of this mindset in our daily lives, and not just in how we view others, but also with how we view ourselves. You can check out her Blog and the video clip from Ted Lasso at www.wendyhummell.com
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Happy New Year and welcome to Episode 26 of the Guns and Yoga podcast, my name is Wendy Hummell.
Today you will hear a conversation I had with Jason Klepac and his wife, Shannon; part 2 of our on-location series at Morgan Farms.
Jason started the non-profit after retiring from law enforcement and serving in the military. I really enjoyed my time with Jason and Shannon. Talking to them was like hanging with a few old friends and shooting the shit, which is really what we did. We sat on their wrap around front porch overlooking their breathtaking 40 acre spread and talked about well, everything. What to expect if you visit Morgan Farms - which in a nutshell is an opportunity to slow down; the lessons we can learn from the animals about ourselves and how to interact with others, whether that be co-workers, friends, or family; communication, relationships and the impact a LE career has on families, success, failure, faith, growth, therapy, vulnerability, and compromise.
If you’d like to learn more about Morgan Farms or you’d like to contact Jason about a donation or a visit check out FB, Instagram, and Linkedin.
LINKS:
And please, if you find value in this episode, make sure to share it, give us a review, and if you’d like to be notified of future episodes you can subscribe on our Podbean website or email us at wendy@bluelineyoga.com.
Thanks!
Also visit us at: wendyhummell.com